Beneficiation Cost

The total operating cost of processing run-of-mine ore through a beneficiation plant, typically expressed in dollars per tonne of feed or per tonne of product. Beneficiation costs encompass labour, energy, reagents, grinding media, water, maintenance, and overheads. Cost benchmarking against comparable operations identifies efficiency improvement opportunities. Minimising beneficiation cost while maintaining recovery and product quality is a key operational objective. In gold mining, beneficiation cost is a major component of the all-in sustaining cost per ounce.